


After the Reunion

by Jaetion



Series: Love That Dirty Water [3]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Edgar Allan Poe References, Gen, Internal Conflict, Not Beta Read, just my m!ss playthrough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 13:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17060750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaetion/pseuds/Jaetion
Summary: Playing through FO4 again, this time with a male!SS - the weary solider. Sad victorium. Takes place after the quest "Reunion."





	After the Reunion

Early 2288, Fort Hagen

\---

Somehow he managed to access the terminal and get the door open. When Goose stumbled out onto the roof of Fort Hagen, he was momentarily lost in the darkness. Night had fallen - How long had he and Nick been inside? Time slipped in uneven intervals, hours like minutes, minutes like years. And now, standing in the dark, he was more disoriented than ever and he had to grope for the railing in front of him. 

Without light pollution he could see for miles - blue blackness like an ocean, impossible to see where the land ended, where the sky began. There were stars, more than he’d seen since he’d been in Alaska’s tundra. But their infinite distance was anything but comforting. The world was empty. Still. Silent. Dead.

His eyes stung as he blinked back another rush of furious tears. He dug the heels of his palms into his eyes, rubbing them hard, and might have stood there until dawn with his head tipped back and eyes closed, if he hadn’t heard a distant thrum of engines. 

The Brotherhood had arrived.

He was aware of Nick joining him, standing beside him at the banister, but he couldn’t tear his eyes from the massive zeppelin that sailed overhead, the missile shape of its body cut through the night air. Its spotlights were like spears shooting across the Commonwealth. 

Nick inhaled a slow breath. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there… Wondering… Fearing.”

In mute stupor he stared at the detective. And again Goose thought of Alaska - in the trenches, half buried already. Even when reinforcements had arrived, the planes appearing out of the snow and smoke, he’d felt the same: like an empty gun, spent and useless. Defenseless against the tide of it, of whatever it was. Death. War.

This was war. Again. Always.

“My wife,” he began, croaked it, really, and had to swallow and start again, “my wife’s name was Nora. Dreaming of my lost...”

Nick’s eyes moved to his, the gold a glow in the dark. Nick struck a match and brought it to the cigarette between his lips, and the flame cast shadows over the planes of the detective’s face, the deep gouge of his frown, the hole of his missing cheek. Once the cigarette was lit he passed it to Goose who reached for it gratefully, brought it to his mouth for an unsteady inhale.

In silence they watched the Brotherhood zeppelin move quickly across the sky in spite of its bulk, blotting out the stars behind it. 

“Nevermore,” Goose said and flicked the butt of his cigarette to the concrete, then crushed the embers under the heel of his boot.


End file.
